The Academic Decathlon teams competed at California State University, Fresno (CSUF), for the first of two regional testing events, Jan. 31. The Saturday competition included the speech, interview and essay categories of AcaDec.

The 15 members on the two teams arrived at CSUF dressed in professional clothes and braced themselves for the examinations ahead. Although most dreaded the speech or essay events, the day progressed with little heartache due to encouragement among students.

“Everybody was nervous at the beginning, but when students came back and talked about their speeches or interviews, it gave the others more confidence,” coach Mick Fuller said. “There was a lot of camaraderie and they were supportive of each other.”

The morning comprised the speech and interview portions of the competition; in the afternoon, students wrote their essays and finished with a pizza lunch among all the teams.

The speech category consisted of two addresses: one prepared and one impromptu. Decathletes first presented their rehearsed speeches, aiming for the appropriate time window of three-and-a-half to four minutes.

“I was nervous because I thought I might forget a line and mess up my whole speech,” Megan Ortiz, ’09, said. “But afterward, I felt relieved because now I won’t have to give a speech for a long time.”

Afterward, students were given one minute to choose an impromptu topic from a list of three prompts and organize their thoughts. Students were supposed to keep their impromptu speeches between one-and-a-half and four minutes in length, while employing effective delivery techniques.

“I enjoyed the impromptu [speech] more than the [rehearsed] speech, because my prompt let me talk about anything I was passionate about,” Rachel Wilhelm, ’11, said. “I felt like I was going to bomb both speeches, because I didn’t know how I was going to deal with standing in front of three people and telling them about myself.”

While some students gave speeches, others sat down with three questioners for the seven-minute interview. In preparation for the interview, students filled out a student profile with personal information to prompt questions about themselves.

“The interview was really laid-back and the judges were friendly,” Julio Ibarra, ’10, said. “I wasn’t nervous because they didn’t create an atmosphere of an interrogation. I feel like I can take a lot of good away from this for future job interviews.”

The 50-minute essay session concluded the testing events of the day. Proctors provided students with two prompts for their essays: one about this year’s Super Quiz topic, evolutionary biology, and the other on the selected novel, Bless Me, Ultima by Rudolfo Anaya.

Based on the reactions of team members, Fuller estimates the students scored between 600 and 700 points out of 1000 on the speech category, and between 700 and 750 out of 1000 for the interview.

“I was disappointed with the lack of preparation,” Fuller said. “Students were not finished with writing speeches until the last few days when they should’ve concentrated on delivery instead of just memorizing lines.”

The AcaDec team won the Division II championship last year with several veteran members. However, due to the lack of experienced students ? senior Molly Griffin is the only returning decathlete ? Fuller anticipates a lower score this year.

“Everybody else is learning to do this for the first time,” Fuller said. “We have several more students this time around, but we had more experienced people last year. The lack of experience might cost our scores.”

The second competition day will be held at Clovis East High School, a change from the past several years. The Feb. 7 event will test students on the seven subjects within the Latin America-themed curriculum, including the trademark Super Quiz.

The Super Quiz will test the nine members of the primary team ? three on honors level, three on scholastic and three on varsity ? on evolutionary biology. Each set of three will answer 10 questions on the subject in addition to the 40-question written test.

Announcers will read the questions aloud and give the students seven seconds to mark their answers. Then the proctors will tally the points and project them for the audience. When all nine members have completed the Super Quiz, points will be totaled and added to the team score.

Friends and family are encouraged to attend the Super Quiz event at 3:30 p.m. in the East Gym ? reported to look like an airplane hangar ? and also stay for the awards ceremony at 7:30 that night. Fuller advises spectators to arrive at 3 for a good seat during the Super Quiz.

Click here for a Google Map with directions to Clovis East, located at 2940 N. Leonard Ave. in Clovis.

For more information on Academic Decathlon, read the Oct. 28, 2008, article, AcaDec concert conducts Latin American classics or e-mail Mick Fuller.